Jesus taught the parables to people who knew the movers and shakers of history as brutal conquerors; who precipitously appeared on the horizon from far off lands. Changes in the course of history and the rise of new kingdoms were the triumph of the military might of one culture over another, and inevitably meant the social domination of the conqueror over the vanquished. The ancestors of the farmers, fishermen and shepherds around the Sea of Galilee saw the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, and lastly the Romans all swoop down upon them like a tornado.
It should be no surprise that most people of Jesus’ time believed that God’s reign also would be suddenly inaugurated like a cataclysmic thunderstorm from heaven, with fire cleansing everything and God starting over from the ground up. The appearance of the messiah would finally and decisively impose God’s will on the world.
Jesus used terms such as the kingdom of God, the reign of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, or the establishment of God’s new world age on earth, virtually interchangeably. His teaching, however, cast a different perspective than the popular view on what the kingdom of God involved. Jesus stressed first the universality of God’s grace and concern for all humanity and secondly, that God’s plan for the world was not completely foreign or totally disconnected and a radical break from one’s own life.
The new type of world God has in mind is not a privileged society of one people over others. The kingdom of God involves universal citizenship, just as a sower who sows all the seed over all the ground, just as a farmer who waits to harvest the whole crop. Rather than the methods of a military conqueror, God’s power is more like the everyday miracle of growth, like seed that is planted and then, without a lot of fanfare, without imposing itself on anyone else, grows into a large field of grain, producing a generous harvest. In similar fashion, the birth and initial growth of the kingdom of God is virtually imperceptible. God is active even in tiny, seemingly unimportant things.
Hence Jesus taught the kingdom of God is not something from far away, swooping down, obliterating the present. It is not totally incomprehensible or inaccessible, or from another time long ago or far, far in the future. The kingdom of God is indicating its promise now, among us, somewhat hidden or unpretentious to be sure, but nevertheless connected to the experiences of today.
Jesus compares God not to a foreign conqueror seeking to dominate, but to a woman who is about to do some serious baking for a giant family reunion. Three measures of flour are about 80 lbs. The woman mixes in yeast and water with the flour and makes the dough. The yeast acts within the whole 100 pounds or so of dough so it can be baked into loaves feeding a whole party of people.
Jesus intends the Good News of the Gospel not to be like a cache of seed hoarded, guarded and all safely tied up in a bag, but like seed that is widely sown and going on all kinds of soil. The kingdom is not like yeast that is stored covered with a wet towel in a crock, but yeast mixed into the flour and water. Nor is God’s world disembodied, remote and separate from our problems or hopes. Just as there would not be a world without seed or bread dough without yeast, God’s kingdom is not separate from the basic circumstances of our existence. In one sense, sin is the refusal to take seriously God’s presence and the refusal to acknowledge the possibility of God’s seeds of righteousness and peace germinating among us.
The parables about the one who found a treasure and the one who found a pearl stress our response to what God is doing among us. Such a response involves some sense of openness, of discovery, of seeking. Yet the point of the parable isn’t in the effort involved in the lucky finding of the treasure or in the diligent searching for the pearl. Rather it is in the appreciation, the joy of receiving them. The finder of the treasure and the merchant with the pearl appreciate what has come to them; they make no mistake as to their value. As far as we know, their lives may have been very challenging, but they are also filled with joy.
Sometimes we wonder about how meaningful our lives and those around us really are. How would things be like if we were totally in sync with God’s intentions? How would things be different? Would it really be a sudden shock beyond all recognition? Perhaps the Gospel of Matthew offers us in Jesus’ parables an answer we might not suspect, an answer pointing to the ordinary experiences of kindness, of courtesy, of generosity, of going out of our way to be helpful to others. Can we see in them the signs that God’s joy-filled harvest of righteousness and peace are sown in our midst, even on a warm summer’s day in late July?
